Monday, April 4, 2016

Diary of a World Traveler

Galway Day 2: "King of Foxes."

We have had such an amazing adventure in Galway
today! Yesterday we had a schedule, but today, we just wandered around into any
shops that we fancied. There was a lot of shopping, but also a lot of scoping
for later days when we have more free time. Can’t blow all our money in one
day—not even in a bookstore the size of a house!

The day started
with a lovely breakfast at 9AM. We had some more fried eggs, sausage, and croissants
before heading out toward downtown. Everything interesting is on Shop Street,
High Street, and Quay Street, with offshoots periodically within those areas.
We made a quick stop into Cupán Tae, since we want to go get afternoon tea
there sometime. The teacups! The pastries! The sandwiches! Oh my! There are no
reservations, so we decided we would come back when the weather is a little
nicer so that we can wear fancy clothes. From there, we made our way slowly up
Quay Street toward Eyre Square, stopping into little shops along the way. I am
thinking about buying a Claddagh ring, so we window shopped at a few places for
those. We also popped into a great little boutique called Twice as Nice, where
we found a black shirt with white foxes on it—the perfect shirt for me!
Unfortunately it was too expensive and not even in my size, but it was a
genuinely cool place to start our day.

On the way
toward things, we popped into Boots for a quick look around—but it turns out
this is the biggest Boots we’ve seen yet in Ireland! They even had a Liz Earle
counter, which none of the other ones have even stocked, let alone stocked with
a permanent fixture. Crazy! I picked up three Soap & Glory items (Sexy
Mother Pucker lip crayon in Nudist, One Heck of a Blot pressed powder, and one
of the famed Solar Powder compacts), as well as some cotton wool pads and
another Collection Lasting Perfection concealer in my shade (which seems to
sell out very quickly in other locations).

Next, we went to
Powell’s music shop, where my professor did some of his research a few summers
ago. I wondered if I could spot Mr. Powell himself, and it seems that I did
toward the end of our visit. I am glad to know that he is still doing well and
running his shop smoothly. He stocks a lot of professional grade Irish
instruments, as well as ukuleles, guitars, amps, and orchestral strings. They
even have a 1/16violin! It was almost doll sized, but fully
functional. Almost worth the €130… almost. A few of my friends bought a tin
whistles, and I am thinking about getting a small bodhrán there to take home
with me. We have a whole two weeks here, though, so I didn’t go crazy. Yet.

We then spent a large amount of time in Eyre
Square shopping center, where the medieval wall is inside the mall. I checked
out my first New Look, which is a slightly more expensive and quality version
of Penney’s. I almost bought a fabulous pair of cutout heels there, since they
were my size and they fit perfectly in the sole and the heel. They were tall,
but not so tall that I would be on the cusp of falling over at any given
moment. That’s always a win. But they were €35, and I thought that was a little
steep for something that might not even fit in my suitcase when I come home. I
will try my best to find some at home that are as similar to those! On our way
upstairs, we quickly walked around Tiger and happened upon a bunch of temporary
tattoos. We have all been considering getting a tattoo whilst here, and so we
all slurged the €2 to get a really high quality, large tattoo. (It was a joke
originally, but it actually turned out really well and I am considering getting
more as backups.) We also made a quick swoop into Penney’s, but I have already
bought too many clothes for my own good. I decided to leave it for today and
spend my money other places.

And boy was that
a good idea! I got a delicious lunch of a cup of parsnip soup and a Nutella
crepe, when went on to Charlie Byrne’s bookshop. This place is almost
indescribable, it’s so amazing. It does not look big from the outside—in fact,
it looks like every other small storefront in Galway. But it is actually inside
a covered mall, where they have bargain bookshelves lining the entire perimeter
of the store. That’s probably a good sixty feet of books, just on the outside.
We spent almost a half hour just looking at books out there, even before going
inside. And the inside is the same as the outside, only with more books. If
that is even possible. There is a great mixture of old and new books, which is
great for interesting absolutely anyone who is looking for a book. Obviously, I
went in for the old books and was not disappointed at all. After many, many
minutes (probably over an hour) of consideration and exploring, I can honestly
say I found the best of what I saw. But there was still so much more than what
I could ever see. There are books in every cranny of this place, and I plan on
going back to do some more snooping at least once before we go. I checked out
with a copy of Romantic Britain, an
old copy of History Today magazine
with a sidesaddle rider on the cover, and a teeny tiny hardbound blank book. It’s
the most expensive thing I got, ironically, but also the cutest. I’m always a
sucker for miniatures.

After that, we
were all pretty much shopped out. We are going to be here for two more weeks,
so we are not overly worried about spending all of our money nor time all at
once. We need to take things slowly so that we don’t burn out—even though the
abundance of cool things in this city would make burning out almost impossible,
even for more than two weeks. It’s an amazing place with an eclectic array of
shops and things to do. And the buskers will always make simply walking around
fun, as well. We got back to the hotel and put on our tattoos, which turned out
way better than I could have hoped for that price. So worth it! We can’t wait
to show them off tomorrow when we go to afternoon tea and shop some more.

The dinner of
Caesar salad, vegetable pastry, and hazelnut brownie was so welcome after all
of our adventures today. Also on the menu was a stuffed leg of lamb and a
venison burger, which I sampled a bit of. Never having eaten it before, I was
very willing to eat more, but not a whole burger’s worth. It was good to try,
though! Apparently bison burgers are even better than this, so I’ll be on the lookout
for that once I get back to bison land. And the brownie was a delicious way to
finish the meal, along with a cup of strong tea. They sure do know how to make
a good cup of tea in Galway. Just more evidence of how much I am going to love
it here. We have morning class tomorrow, but then we are going to walk to
afternoon tea. I have never been more excited in my whole life. Stay tuned for
pictures from the fairy tale tea room!